What type of games do you enjoy? MMO's only Collectable card games (such as EVE Online, Magic etc) Dungeons & Dragons, roleplaying games Other IRL dice throwing games Other games? There's only EVE! All kind of games, I like to try anything Any game where I can be _evil_...

I've found myself logging into Eve less and less over the last week or so. Our last war wasn't as big a success as I had been hoping and we still had mercs tailing us, making it hard to get into any lengthy fights without having to look over our shoulders. Targets seemed to be few and far between, and the potential customers that I could find didn't seem very eager to let me carry out the services I offer. Things were going slow, slower than usual, and I had grown slightly bored with the hunt.

Cleared for publication by: Ander

One of the days last week, sitting docked at a station after yet another fruitless hunt, I found myself looking through the kill logs for myself and the other members of my corporation. To my surprise, I had been pushed off the top spot for the first time that I could think of, and even worse than that, I hadn't achieved a single kill in two whole days. That really wouldn't do. With some new found determination, I loaded up my map screen, setting filters to show the amount of active pilots in space and began planning a route through the nearby busy systems, in the hope of running into a decent target.

With the thought of getting the first kill in what felt like a long time, I marched down to the docking bay, ready to blast off into the void in search of death or glory. Unfortunately, I came to a dilemna before I could do any such thing...I didn't know which ship to take. I pondered it for a minute, before deciding it would require some logical thinking...something which my Deteis bloodline is famed for. I immediatly ruled out my Dominix, as well as both my Myrmidon and my Drake. I figured these would be far too bulky to make any sort of escape should the mercenaries after my head, actually manage to track me down. With those set aside, it was down to a select few ships I had brought with me on my return to Caldari space. I glanced at the ships in my hanger one by one. Incursus, Vexor, Thorax. Even though both of my cruiser's heavy firepower and immense tank appealed to me, I decided to go for my Incursus.

I had developed a close bond with this ship during the time I flew it, and with almost two hundred kills under my belt from this ship alone, I felt more comfortable flying this than anything else in my hanger. As soon as my pod had been lowered into the bridge I began to activate the ships systems, and prepared for launch. As the subsystems powered up, I keyed the route I had previously planned into my ships navigation systems, through some of the busiest systems in the sector. Although there would be a lot of people passing through these systems on their way to somewhere else, I figured that there would be a better chance finding someone to harass with more people in the system.

Once the ship had prepared to launch, I gunned the thrusters and steered it clear of the docking bay. After I had put some distance between myself and the station, I kicked on my warpdrive and shot off towards the stargate leading to my first destination. I wasted no time engaging in conversation with any of the peacekeepers on duty at the stargate, simply activating the jump command as soon as I got within range. I felt the curious sensation of being disassembled, then rematerialising at the stargate in the intended system. This was never something I had understood, but it got me to wherever I wanted to go, usually in one piece, so I never complained.

I keyed in the waypoints of one of my safe spots in space, where I could comfortably scan the belts, without fear of the mercenaries coming across me. All the same, I kept my scanner running, hoping to pick up the trace of any scan probes before they had the chance to find me. Similarly, I had logged the names of several of the mercenaries ships, unless they were being smart about it, I would have early warning of their arrival as soon as they got withing 14au of my ship. Satisfied that I was in no immediate danger, I got to work. I have a simple process for scanning down ships that I had picked up during my time in Amarrian space, it was both fast and efficient, and very accurate in pinning down targets.

Unfortunately, I found nothing of interest, so instead of wasting any more time I set a course for the next system on my route. To my dismay, the turn of the events was much the same in the next few systems, until I had neared the end of my trip. With only one jump to go until I arrived back in the same place from where I had set off earlier, something on my ship's scanner caught my eye.

I had identified a Rokh, which was somewhat unusual in this area of space. This ship class was just off of the State's production line, and as far as I knew had been destined for fleet battles out in lawless space. With that in mind, it was very peculiar indeed to have a fix on one in the proximity of an asteroid belt, as if there was any reason for one to be in the area, I had assumed it was to assist the local corporations by running missions for them, protecting their assets and fighting off the small time pirates that interfered with them.

Intrigued, I selected the asteroid belt from the drop down menu on my ships navigational computer, and activated my warp drives once more. Once my Incursus class frigate had aligned for the belt, and accelerated to speed, it entered warp and rapidly approached the belt. As I reached the point of the warp tunnel's collapse at my destination, my ship slowed down as it prepared to enter realspace again.

As I dropped out of warp, I increased the magnification of my targetting systems camera, so I could get a good look at the ship. What I saw on that viewscreen horrified me. Here was one of the State's premier combat vessels, a magnificent ship, unrivalled in its long range fleet capabilities...and to my disgust it was being desecrated by it's owner. The twisted pilot had removed all of the ships armaments, instead replacing them with mining lasers, intending to strip all of the useful minerals from the asteroids in the vicinity.

Once the systems had recalibrated, I got a positive identification of the Rokh class battleship. My scanners retrieved the vessel's details, and ran a check against the Concord database. As soon as the results were in, I had a quick scan over them. Unless the ship had changed hands recently, it belonged to a pilot by the name of Terranah Scysha. According to the information, he had registered as a pilot quite some time before myself, thought this didn't worry me too much. In addition to that, he was a member of the United Peoples Defense Coalition. Taking this into account, there was a good chance the outcome might not favour me, however I was confident enough in my abilities to handle myself and pretty certain I could make my escape if backup arrived.

Engaging my ships thusters at full power, I headed for the cargo container the pilot was using to store all of his ore in. Due to the police presence in the system, I couldn't put a stop to his foul activities, however I was free to at least make a dent on his profits by stealing his goods. After all, this is one of the most popular services my corporation performs and I wasn't planning on letting a potential customer down.

As soon as I was within transfer range, I jettisoned a single unit of ammo from my cargohold. At the same time, I sent the command to my ships nanobots to begin transferring the ore from Terranah's container into my own. Once the operation was complete I put some distance between myself and the Rokh. As of yet I had no real measure of the ships combat capabilities, and even without any turrets mounted, it could still make short work of any frigate with it's combat drones, and could easily shrug off the damage from my ships weapons as far as I knew.

After what seemed like only seconds had passed, my ship detected combat drones being released from the Rokh's drone bay. Light drones usually weren't too much of a problem for me, but I knew the Rokh had the capability to pack medium scout drones. This was confirmed as my targetting systems identified the drones heading towards my ship as Vespa class. Though the pilot had earned my disgust due to his lack of respect for a ship such as the one that he flew, I had to commend him for at least outfitting it with Caldari componants.

As the drones closed in on my ship, I started to get damage readings as their micro-blasters got to work on my shields. As expected, my shields failed miserably. I had found there was many advantages to the Gallente Federation's line of ships, but the endurance of their shields was definately not one of them. The damage proved to much, and my shields flickered and died, now it was down the armor plating I had fitted on the ship to keep me from exploding.

Cursing, I initiated an emergency warp. It would appear that thanks to his drone's defences, I wouldn't be able to relieve this pilot of his Rokh just yet. Unfortunately for him, I also had a Thorax class cruiser and a Dominix class battleship stored in the system, now all I needed was time to get them. I calculated how long it would take me to exchange ships and arrive back at the belt, and it wasn't looking good. In that length of time, the Rokh pilot could easily reclaim his stolen ore, and leave the area without any chance of me tailing him. I only had one oportunity to take him out, I wasn't going to let it slip away. As soon as I had dropped out of warp, I cut the engines to a halt, and whipped my ship back round towards the belt. I slammed the thursters back up to full speed and initiated warp, willing my ship to get there in time.

From what I could see, the Rokh had taken back his belongings and was making his escape...not if I could help it. Without any hesitation I flicked the switch for my micro warp drive, and set a course directly towards his ship. I was over twenty kilometres away from him, well outside of my ships operational range, but with my MWD online I might just reach him. Grinning like a fool, I watched as my spedometer steadily climbed until it showed me travelling at over two thousand kilometres per second.

In no time, I was upon him. My targetting systems triangulated his ship and achieved a lock. As soon as I heard the ping in my ears, I tripped the switch for both the stasis webifier and the close range warp scrambler I had installed on my ship. Now he wasn't going anywhere, all I had to do was kill him, and hopefully avoid loosing my own ship in the process. The ammo hoppers for my armaments cycled, as they loaded the advanced Void Xenon hybrid charges into my weapons. I knew I would need all the damage output I could get in this fight, and this was one way of achieving that. Subconsciously, I ejected the single combat drone from my drone bay, the little Hobgoblin II that had served me well in many previous fights.

The drone set an orbit for the battleship at my command, the mounted blasters pumping bolts of superheated plasma at the massive ship, however, I held back with the blasters mounted on my frigate itself, as I knew what was comming next. Right on cue, the Vespa drones emerged once more from the Rokh's drone bay. I was ready for them this time. Satisfied that I could easily keep him within range, I disengaged the webifier as I locked onto the drones. My Incursus' electronics were relativly primative compared to some of the other ships I had flown, allowing me only to maintain a lock on three targets at the one time. That would have to do.

Lock achieved. Now I had two of his five drones locked on, time to get to work. I quickly engaged my stasis webifier, as I knew they would be too fast to hit at full speed. Blasters activated. They made short work of the first drone, of that I was grateful. Still, there were another four to go, and they were still firing away at me. My blasters tracked the second drone, sending round after round of high-powered blaster charges towards it. I was already locking the remaining drones when that one gave in and splintered under the blasts of thermal and kinetic energy from the hybrid shells.

They had once again managed to cut through my shields, but with two drones out of the way I could already notice the drop in firepower directed at my ship. Following the same procedure, I quickly dispatched the last of the drones attacking my ship. At least sixty-five percent of my armor was still unscathed, thanks to the rolled tungten plating fitted onto the hull. Sixty-five percent to go, with no guns at his disposal, the only way that Rokh was taking me down was with the help of some of his corpmates.

With my Incursus out of imediate danger, I once against focused all of my firepower on the Battleship. Finally admitting he was in trouble, the pilot tried to find another way out. My communications system chimed to announce an incomming message. I accepted the request with a flick of my hand, bringing the comms window up on one of the displays surrounding my console.

I was greeted by the pleasant face of an Achura female, younger than myself by the looks of it, distorted by the scowl she was currently wearing. Not surprising considering the current situation, might I add. I decided to hear her out before I made any conclusions about her, responding to her message with a formal greeting. Regardless of the conversation, I kept my turrets online, steadily working its way through the monumental amount of shields generated by the ship. I was glad of the extra ammunition I had loaded into my frigate's cargo bay before I undocked...it looked like I might be needing it shortly.

Pleasantries fell through rather quickly, with Terranah eager to get out of my grasp. She requested that I actually let her go, something which I had absoloutly no intentions of doing. Failing that, she demanded to at least be allowed to swap out to her other ship, a Crow class interceptor. I reminded her that she would have fifteen minutes in which she could go and get her Crow, and hunt me down if she pleased. At this, she decided to change tactics once more, to try to give the impression that she was actally the one in control. I took the opportunity to remind her that she helpless in this situation, with her drones dispatched and his shields slowly failing under the combined firepower of my blasters and combat drone. The only thing she was in control of, was the warp scrambler she had activated to stop me from escaping. She offered to let me go, as if she was doing me the favour. I thanked her, before telling her that it would not be nescesarry. In fact, I was quite enjoying the turn of events.

She took this as the signal to reveal her true colours. The cheerful facade was dropped, and she started to reel off every insult she could think of. According to her, I was a coward, a scoundrel, an incapable pilot, a discrace to the pirate flag I flew under. I took it in my stride, as it's something I'm subjected to almost daily, thanks to my choice of career. I suppose it makes them feel a little better, though they may have lost the battle between our ships, many of my customers feel they have won the battle of minds. It is rather amusing though, if they really believe they can outsmart me, why did they fall into my simple trap in the first place? Sometimes anger does get in the way of logic...

By this point, I was finally making some progress. The Rokh's impressive shields had finally buckled under the sustained impacts from my blasters. Now, I was being treated by the gratifying sight of molten armor plating shredding from the ships hull. I knew it wasn't long before the order would be given to abandon ship, unless help was on it's way. I doubted that anything of the kind was coming though, as if members of the pilot's corporation were coming to assist, surely they would have arrived by now.

Then it happened. The first round pierced the ships hull, gases vented with an explosive force as the atmoshere inside the vessel began to escape through the ragged holes. Several decks of the ship were now exposed to the void, the debris only just visible, glittering in space as it floated out from the ship. Fires had broken out by this point, and looked to be spreading rapidly across the dying ship. The final nail in the coffin was when several of my rounds found a fissure on the bulkhead housing the Rokh's reactors. There was a brief, blinding flash, before the immense shockwave from the blast rolled over my frigate. Several warning runes lit up as my fragile ship was rocked by the blast, but thankfully I had been far enough away to avoid the worst of the explosion.

Through the parts of wreckage and scrap metal, I caught sight of an escape pod blinking as it slid into warp. I knew they would be back, the pilot was far too enraged to simply cut their losses and let it go. I welcomed any attempt they may make on my life...I doubted it would be successful. I gathered what loot I could from the wreckage, before vaporising the evidence and leaving the scene of the time. I couldn't help but smile as I returned to the station, with a very respectable kill under my belt, as well as a fortune worth of tech II gear in my cargo bay.

As I marked up the estimated worth of all the modules I had managed to run off with, I recieved another communications request from Terranah. Apparently, she wanted a rematch, with her flying a kestel this time, a ship I knew posed no danger to me at all, having bested them several times before in one on one combat. I admired her persistance, but her attempt at a trap was pitiful. Regarless, I decided to humour her. I warped back to the belt, only this time at one hundred kilometres. As I had expected, she was sitting there in her crow, awaiting my arrival. Taunting her, I sat still for a few moments, until she finally noticed my ship and came hurtling towards me with her micro warp drive at full burn. Sadly, she was far too slow, and I warped off back to the station before she was anywhere near in range.

Later on that day, in a further search for potential customers, I happened to come across another cargo container, belonging to the same corporation. On closer inspection, I see it is property of a pilot by the name of Terranah Scysha. Interesting. Knowing it must be some sort of ploy to exact revenge on me, I hesitate to take anything from the can. However, no harm could come to me as a result of taking a look inside, so I approach it and check the contents with my onboard scanner. More ore. As I sit there and ponder the situation, I see something appearing on my overview. Just in time, I pan the camera drone round to witness a covert ops ship decloaking, twenty
kilometres off my ship. The pilot is Terranah.

Targetting systems identify the vessel as a Buzzard covert operations frigate, based on the Heron class hull. The ship is famed for it's electronic warfare abilities, it's combat prowess is known to leave much to desire though. A red warning light activates on my overview, alerting me to the fact that a ship has obtained a positive lock on me. My paranoia hadn't been without good reason, it had in fact been a trap after all, however poorly executed it may be.

Weighing up my options, I figured I would chance my hand. If I can do it one time, I should be able to do it again. I locked onto the ship, to let the pilot know I was onto him. As last time, I give the order to my ships nanobots to transfer the cargo, only this time instead of going to a cargo container of my own, I transfer it directly to me cargo hold. All I had to do was get myself flagged towards Terranah, simply stealing some of the ore would be sufficient.

Before the empty container had automatically self destructed, I had already slammed on my micro warp drive and headed straight towards the Buzzard orbitting me. She was slow to react, with my Incursus only several hundred metres away before she fired a shot. Now it was my turn. I mashed the activation keys for my Light Ion Blaster IIs, simultaneously turning on the stasis webifier and warp disruption unit...my Hobgoblin was already enroute to its target.

Damage readings were now scrolling across the top of my viewscreen, but at a glance, I could see the first volley had barely scratched my shields. My ship rocked slightly again as the second barrage made contact with my shields, but again, damage was negligable. It was plain to see that my assailant wasn't quite as fortunate. Regardless of the ship's Caldari heritage, the shields had already collapsed under my fire, with the armor and hull of the vessel rapidly following suite. I felt as if the fight had only just begun, when that familiar blue flash rippled out from expanding fireball.

The loot was just as rewarding as the last kill, and I found myself chuckling on my return to the station once more. I sincerly hoped this Terranah would be back once again, I am by no means poor, but I would certainly never turn down more ISK to line my wallet with. Following procedure, I submitted the kills to my corporations database. By gathering this sort of information, we can see how to best advance our service, and I'm more than happy to oblige.

Satisfied with the day's proceedings, I retired to my rented quarters in the station. It had been exactly what I needed to get me back into the game, and I found myself eager to get out on the hunt at the next possible chance. First, however, I decided it was time for some well earned rest.

Please note, although I have tried to keep this as true to the sequence of events as possible, I may have used some artistic lisence at one or two parts of the story. I intentionally left out the actual chatlogs just to keep it civilised, though I'll include them as well as the killmails for those of you who want to see them below. Oh, and go easy on me, first time I've actually got round to finishing a submission!

Kha0s > Hi there.
Terranah Scysha > So
Terranah Scysha > sup?
Kha0s > Nothing much. I was going to get a larger ship. I thought I would try this though, not as if I stand to lose much.
ï»¿Terranah Scysha > let me get my crow
Terranah Scysha > and we'll continue this
Kha0s > Alright, I'll let you go get it in a minute.
Terranah Scysha > nah
Terranah Scysha > now
Terranah Scysha > i prefer
Terranah Scysha > i cant warp
Kha0s > I know.
Terranah Scysha > wrong window
Terranah Scysha > was notiying someone
Kha0s > Ah
Terranah Scysha > you're free to go
Kha0s > Thanks. I think I'll stick around for a while though.
Terranah Scysha > I warped you back up
Kha0s > You did what?
Terranah Scysha > You can warp now
Kha0s > I could warp before if I had wanted to. I could get out of range easily.
Terranah Scysha > The moment you destroy this
Terranah Scysha > you have 2 seconds to get out of here
Terranah Scysha > before I hunt you down
Terranah Scysha > and rape you a new one
Terranah Scysha > understand?
Kha0s > You don't seem to be doing much of that right now.
Terranah Scysha > not right now
Terranah Scysha > but you're not big
Terranah Scysha > stealing ore
Kha0s > Maybe not. It takes some balls to attack a BS with a tech 1 frigate though.
Terranah Scysha > yeah
Terranah Scysha > it does
Terranah Scysha > but only if im in a 1.0 system
Terranah Scysha > fuck wit
Kha0s > I really don't know why you decided to agro me. It wasn't the smartest thing to do.
Terranah Scysha > because I just spent 30 mining
Terranah Scysha > for you to steal it
Terranah Scysha > i dont think so
Kha0s > Well, your corp mate got your ore back.
Terranah Scysha > See you soon
Kha0s > I look forward to it.
Kha0s > So, what are you bringing to kill me?
Terranah Scysha > your mum
Kha0s > Is that the best you can do?
Terranah Scysha > whats the matter?
Terranah Scysha > hiding?
Terranah Scysha > like a fucking wimp?
Kha0s > Dropping off my loot in fact.
Terranah Scysha > cool
Terranah Scysha > what you get
Kha0s > Quite a lot of your fittings survived. Some tech 2 stuff at least.
Terranah Scysha > some mining mods?
Terranah Scysha > hahaha
Terranah Scysha > what, 200k?
Kha0s > Several mil worth in fact.
Terranah Scysha > feel free for the t2 mods
Terranah Scysha > I have tons more
Terranah Scysha > you could have asked
Terranah Scysha > and i would have given the rechargers
Kha0s > But as I've said to several others, I don't do it for the cash.
Terranah Scysha > i have like 50
Kha0s > Feel free to give me some more of them then.
Terranah Scysha > then come back and have some fun
Terranah Scysha > and I will
Kha0s > Do you have another rokh there?
Terranah Scysha > if you think you can take down a kestrel
Terranah Scysha > no
Terranah Scysha > a kessie
Kha0s > I killed a t2 fit one earlier.
Terranah Scysha > oooh
Terranah Scysha > a cruise missile launcher?
Terranah Scysha > so hard
Terranah Scysha > come in
Terranah Scysha > and lets play nice
Terranah Scysha > oh
Terranah Scysha > you cant hit me
Terranah Scysha > cos you just blew up a rokh
Terranah Scysha > fucking pussy
Kha0s > I don't know why you you are trying to prove yourself so superior. You just lost a battleship to a tech 1 frig. And thats not a kessie you're flying.
Terranah Scysha > nio its not
Terranah Scysha > yourright
Terranah Scysha > but you wouldnt have come if i said it was a crow
Kha0s > You already told me you had one earlier. Thats why I came in at 100km, so I could leave again if I pleased.
Terranah Scysha > so why check?
Terranah Scysha > you have no balls whatsoever
Terranah Scysha > fight like a girl
Kha0s > Well, if it was a kessie I knew it was another free kill, and I'm all for that. I doubt I can take out a crow with this though.
Terranah Scysha > yeah
Terranah Scysha > cos you cant fight
Kha0s > My killmails prove otherwise.
Terranah Scysha > you only fight free kills
Kha0s > Not at all. I don't get into battles where there is no chance whatsoever of my winning. If I think I have a chance I'm all for engaging though.
Terranah Scysha > your sec status shows otherwise
Kha0s > Sec status proves what? Ever heard of wars?
Terranah Scysha > yeah, i have
Kha0s > Read my corp history. Privateers for example. D2. NOS. ECP-R. When I was in Privs, I was fighting against most of the biggest corps and alliances in eve. We had over 150 active wars at any one time with over 10,000 targets hunting us in space.
Terranah Scysha > you lost the most expensive t2 item
Terranah Scysha > so thats a shame
Kha0s > As I said, I don't particularly need the cash.
Terranah Scysha > so whered you run to?
Terranah Scysha > dont wanna lose a t1 frigate?
Kha0s > I don't see any point in loosing my ship. Why give you a kill to gloat about?
Terranah Scysha > Nice England. nothing
Terranah Scysha > I dont want to gloat
Terranah Scysha > An eye for an eye
Kha0s > I don't think loosing a frigate is quite the same as loosing a battleship.
Kha0s > Besides, if you have so much money, what do you care?
Terranah Scysha > I care to stop scum like you getting your free kills
Kha0s > Good luck with that.
Terranah Scysha > hrmm
Terranah Scysha > have fun being a loser, have fun with that
Kha0s > Don't take it so personally in future. You engaged, you lost. You have nobody else to blame but yourself.

Do a story on the apoc + domi pair that didn't have a pair to engage your Incursus and your buddy's Omen.
You guys had me in 30% armor before i managed to pop the Incursus and focus on the Omen. Was a real close one.

PS: I'm still up for that 1:1, so give me an eve-mail when you see me online.

I had you in around 60% armor before the Omen opened fire. I knew it was suicide attacking a rupture in my incursus, but my intention was to bug out before I got locked down, just wanted to get your attention then assist the Omen.

To be fair...he did have an outside the box setup...with something more traditional we might have succeeded. I'll try to contact you tonight about that duel, but I've been flying all over the place chasing war target blobs, so I might have to delay it a little longer

Again, thanks a lot for all of the positive comments. I'll try to get round to finishing another submission at some point this week.

Haha very nice! funny thing is I've acctually engaged Terranah about a week or so back, found him sitting in kusomonmon doing the same thing with the rokh, tho that time he was able to hop into his badger, flip the ore and get away. (my myrm was one jump away and so i showed up as his badger warped out)